Popcorn Processing Facility

Bratney was asked to deliver a turn key popcorn conditioning facility for a premier global supplier of premium quality popcorn. The client’s primary concerns included; a safe and healthy finished product surpassing the industry standard for quality and foreign materials, peak efficiency, advanced technology, operator safety, plant automation and budget.

Project Background

Through a collaborative effort between Bratney’s project development team and our client, an innovative process flow and plant design was conceived. From that point, Bratney design staff began detailed engineering to not only eliminate antiquated steps in the process, but to carefully place the equipment, structures and platforms in the most efficient manner providing for optimum performance and accessibility.

All of this was done being ever mindful of the client’s budget and their desire to incorporate the latest processing and packaging equipment from Cimbria and Concetti. This technology allowed them to beat the industry standard of 1-2% foreign material by nearly 2 full percentage points, producing 99.9% perfect popcorn.

The automated plant safely processes 42,000 lbs. / hour with only three operators. And, more importantly at a quality level not achievable without the advanced technology Bratney process engineers incorporated in the design.

Food processing plants require not only a quality design, but attention to details. Bratney millwrights are experienced in the proper installation of conditioning equipment, material handling systems, storage systems, dust control systems and compressed air systems. Those skills combined with those of our start up and service technicians, allowed us to commission each system, train the plant operators and successfully bring this plant online.

Process Flow Model

img_Cimbria-Seed-Food-processing-plant img_Cimbria-Seed-Food-processing-plant
Enclosed Truck Receiving Lane

Enclosed Truck Receiving Lane

Cimbria Pre-Cleaner

Cimbria Pre-Cleaner

Remove large foreign material to protect downstream equipment and prepare product for precision cleaning steps.

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Cimbria Super-Cleaner

Cimbria Super-Cleaner

Precision cleaning step to remove over and under sized kernels along with unique aspiration system to remove low density foreign materials.

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Cimbria Indents

Cimbria Indents

Length separation step to remove any remaining sticks, stems and pods.

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Cimbria Cleaner

Cimbria Cleaner

2nd cleaning high-quality screening to remove split kernels and small fines.

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Cimbria Gravity Table

Cimbria Gravity Table

Density separation step to remove low-density split and broken kernels as well disease and insect damaged kernels - simple to operate with honeycomb deck for even air distribution and fans that move with the deck.

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Cimbria SEA Color Sorter

Cimbria SEA Color Sorter

Optical sorting for precise removal of the smallest defects as well as removal of off color or incorrectly sized kernels.

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Color Sorter Rerun Conveyer

Color Sorter Rerun Conveyer

2nd pass color sorting of first round rejects to reclaim any good product caught in first pass rejects.

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Cimbria Treating & Coating System

Cimbria Treating & Coating System

Batch or continuously treating systems and drying conveyors for pulse seed producers.

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Automated Bagging, Palletizing & Stretch Wrapping

Richardson_3D_Export5-02-1 Richardson_3D_Export5-02-1
belt-feed-bagging-scale

High-Speed Bagging Scales

Concetti automatic bagging scales are accurate to 1/10th of a pound on 50 lb. bags and include multiple feeder options to match product handling needs.

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5-min

Automatic Stretch Wrapper

Automated stretch wrapping systems provide load security and protect bags during shipping.

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5s-min

Integrated Bag Inspection Equipment

Fully integrated check-weighers, metal detectors, x-ray systems with automatic bag reject conveyors.

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4

Robotic Palletizing System

Concetti hybrid-robot palletizer includes robot end tooling to build overlapping layers along with layer squaring and layer compressions to build tight, square pallets.

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2-min

Automatic, Open-Mouth Bagging Machine

Concetti high-speed, automatic bagging machine with bag spout designed to fill flat and gusseted bags made of any type of material including porous poly.

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Project Scope

  • Process engineering developing a unique process flow

  • Facility design

  • Project management

  • Construction management

  • Millwright services

  • Equipment selection

  • Equipment installation

  • Facility startup and commissioning

  • Operator training

Project Details

  • 3,000 bushels per hour receiving line

  • Pre-cleaning, precision cleaning and optical sorting line with 42,000lbs. per hour capacity

  • Flexible material handling systems to transfer raw or finished popcorn to a variety of storage and processing stages, including an automated open mouth packaging system from Concetti, bulk sack filling and truck loading systems

  • Food plant options including, in-line magnets, in-line metal detectors, stainless steel contact parts in the packaging system, bagged product metal detection and NTEP certified check weighing

  • Ease of access to all equipment for cleanout between varieties

  • Dust control tied to each piece of equipment, surge bin and transfer point for safety and good housekeeping;

  • Finished product storage

  • Electrical control room

  • Office and warehouse

Equipment Solutions

  • Cimbria pre-cleaners and precision cleaners

  • Cimbria color sorters

  • Concetti Automated Packaging System capable of running both pre-made, open-mouth paper bags and polyethylene FFS (form fill and seal) bags on the same machine

  • Wulftec automated pallet wrapping system integrated to the Concetti packaging line

  • Anex continuous cup elevators

  • Bratney Fabrication – surge bins, equipment platforms, stairs, transitions, valves

  • Plant automation and control system

  • Dust control systems

  • Compressed air system

Other Services

Contact Us

Get in touch with our team about your next project! We are eager to share our 50 years of industry expertise with you to take your facility to the next level of efficiency, safety, and quality.